If you let an HMO anywhere in Coventry, you almost certainly need a license. Since 4 May 2020 the council has operated Additional Licensing across the whole of its area. This brings smaller properties — including houses shared by just three or four people — into scope. This aligns with HMO Fire Safety Coventry: The 2026 License Checklist | Security Fix and the national scheme.
What catches most landlords out isn’t the license application itself. It’s what happens afterwards, when the council or West Midlands Fire Service asks to see your fire safety records and gives you seven days to produce them. Fail that, and the council can revoke your license.
This guide sets out what is actually checked, in the order it tends to come up.
Your license length depends on your fire risk assessment
This is the part worth understanding first, because it has a direct financial effect.
Coventry issues HMO licenses for one, two or five years, and fire safety is the deciding factor:
- One year — issued where there are serious fire safety conditions attached to the license, and where no fire risk assessment has been completed.
- Two years — requires a completed fire risk assessment and no serious fire safety conditions.
- Five years — same requirements, with the council reserving the right to run audits or spot checks, including a “dip” check of your fire log book.
In other words, a properly completed fire risk assessment is the difference between reapplying every twelve months and being left alone for five years. The council does not require you to submit the assessment with your application, and it will accept a signed self-certification form — but if you cannot produce the document on request within seven days, your license is at risk.
A fire risk assessment for a licensed HMO is a legal requirement under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, must be “suitable and sufficient”, must be reviewed annually, and should be carried out by a competent person. Enforcement in the shared parts of the building — hallways, stairways, shared kitchens and living rooms — sits with West Midlands Fire Service, and the council may carry out joint inspections with them.
One important caveat: the council accepting your self-declaration does not protect you from enforcement action by the fire service. They are two separate bodies applying two separate tests.
Alarms: mains-wired and interlinked, no exceptions
Battery-only smoke detectors are not acceptable in an HMO. Coventry states plainly that mains-wired interlinked detectors meet HMO Fire Safety Coventry: The 2026 License Checklist | Security Fix.
Beyond that, the servicing regime depends on which type of system you have:
Grade D systems — mains-powered interlinked alarms with battery back-up, the common arrangement in smaller shared houses. These should be checked regularly using the integral test button, with checks recorded in the system log book, and always tested after the property has been empty or the power has been interrupted. A full system test and service must be carried out annually by a competent person in line with BS 5839. Landlords may self-certify this if they are confident of carrying out the testing correctly, and the resulting test certificate is valid for up to twelve months.
Grade A systems — a full commercial-style installation with a control panel, typically required in larger or higher-risk HMOs. These must be inspected and serviced at intervals not exceeding six months, with a servicing certificate issued by a suitably qualified and competent person.
On coverage, the long-standing national benchmark for HMOs remains the LACORS housing fire safety guidance, which for a small two-story HMO points to a Grade D, Category LD2 system as the minimum — interlinked detection covering the escape route plus higher-risk rooms such as the lounge and a heat alarm in each shared kitchen. Larger and higher-risk properties move up from there.
The practical trap here is the log book. A working alarm with no records is treated, in an audit, much like no alarm at all.
Emergency lighting: it depends on your stories
Emergency lighting is not compulsory in every Coventry HMO. The council’s position is that it is normally required in larger, higher-risk properties — typically those of three or more stories — and it may also be required where a three-story HMO has six or more occupants, where the layout makes the escape route complicated, or where the route has insufficient borrowed light from windows.
For HMOs of two stories or fewer, it is not compulsory. But if you have fitted it, you are then expected to produce an emergency lighting test certificate, valid for up to twelve months.
Escape routes, windows and the details inspectors measure
This is where inspections get specific, and where a lot of otherwise well-run properties fall short. Coventry’s published standards include:
- The distance from any point in the premises to a place of safety should ideally be no more than 9 meters.
- Occupants must be able to leave the house from any room without needing a key.
- Inner rooms should not be used as bedrooms, because of the risk if a fire starts in the room you have to pass through. This can be resolved with an emergency escape window or a door to an alternative route.
- Escape windows are generally expected at ground floor level, and may be accepted on the first floor where the drop from sill to external ground level does not exceed 4.5 meters. They must have an unobstructed openable area of at least 0.33 m², measure at least 450 mm in both height and width, and the bottom of the openable area must sit no more than 1,100 mm above the floor. Keys must be in the lock or in a clearly signed designated place as close as possible to the window.
- Escape windows should only serve rooms occupied by people physically capable of using them.
Fire doors are the other half of this. National HMO fire safety guidance consistently expects FD30S doors — 30 minutes’ fire resistance with smoke seals and a self-closing device — on doors opening onto a protected escape route, with 60-minute separation where a basement or commercial unit sits below.
Coventry’s own guidance is careful to note there is no one-size-fits-all approach: the published examples are generalized, and the risks of each individual property must be assessed on their own terms.
The noticeboard everyone forgets
A straightforward one to fix before an inspection. Coventry requires an HMO noticeboard displaying:
- The license, where there is one to display — the front page must be clearly displayed in a suitable communal area
- The manager’s details
- A fire notice explaining what to do in the event of a fire
- A waste notice
Schedules 1 and 2 of the license do not need to be on display, but must be easily available to tenants.
What about the new 2026 evacuation rules?
There has been a lot of noise about this, and a fair amount of misleading content aimed at landlords, so it is worth being precise.
The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 came into force on 6 April 2026 and introduce residential Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans. They apply to buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises that are at least 18 meters tall or at least seven stories, or that are over 11 meters tall and operate a simultaneous evacuation strategy.
For the overwhelming majority of Coventry HMOs — two and three-story terraces and semis — these regulations do not apply. If you let flats in a taller block, they may well do. Anyone telling every landlord in the city that they now need PEEPs is not reading the regulations.
A short pre-inspection checklist
Before the council or the fire service visits, walk the property and confirm:
- Fire risk assessment completed, dated within the last twelve months, by a competent person
- Fire alarm log book present, with recorded tests
- Annual service certificate for a Grade D system, or a service within the last six months for Grade A
- Emergency lighting test certificate, if emergency lighting is fitted
- All alarms mains-wired and interlinked, and audible from every bedroom with the doors shut
- Fire doors closing fully onto the latch, with strips and seals intact
- Escape route clear — no bikes, bin bags or stored furniture on the stairs
- Every final exit openable without a key
- Escape window keys present and signed where required
- Noticeboard displaying license, manager’s details, fire notice and waste notice
- Records retrievable within seven days of a request
Where to get help
Coventry City Council’s HMO team can be reached on 024 7697 5467 or at hmo@coventry.gov.uk, and the council’s full standards are set out in its Room Size and Amenity Provision Standards document. Fire safety questions can be directed to West Midlands Fire Service at firesafety.admin@wmfs.net.
Security Fix carries out fire risk assessments across Coventry, Rugby, Nuneaton, Warwick, Leamington Spa, and Hinckley. We install and service HMO fire alarms and test emergency lighting for extensive safety needs. HMO Fire Safety Coventry: The 2026 License Checklist | Security Fix informs our approach.